“And you know that fire walk with me.”
Art:Angrath, Captain of Chaos
by Slawomir Maniak
Planeswalkers legalized by PDH RC for Jan 2025; you can find more info here. (https://www.reddit.com/r/PauperEDH/comments/1gbvtcg/big_announcement_for_january_breaktherulesmonth/)
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Today is the first day of a long series focusing on the newly legalized Uncommon Planeswalkers; while this is only temporary for legality, Pauper EDH is a format all about fun, and you can rule zero these bad boys any time! Because of this, we will cover all of the newly legalized walkers! We are starting off strong with Angrath, a strong planeswalker that focuses on aggressiveness and armys, two things we are quite strong at within this deck, while there isn’t a ton of army support within the format, we do have quite a few ways to make our armies pretty big and when combined with menace for all of our creatures, we can hit quite hard, if we are unable to get our armies huge we have a ton of aggressive strong attackers for both the early-game and the late-game, wrap that all together with a Rakdos shell and we also have the removal and card draw to back it all up. Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Angrath, Captain of Chaos Army Aggro!
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Why Angrath, Captain of Chaos?
Angrath is a strong general for our deck. They are a little expensive, but we don’t have a ton of cards that cost four mana, so we can often play this on curve, getting this out early with some of our ramp like Fire Diamond
or Rakdos Signet
it can have a significant impact on the game. Angraths passive ability is also powerful with our deck, especially with cards like Vicious Battlerager
, which will trigger twice if blocked. While that is an edge case, we have a ton of aggressive creatures, and making them more difficult to block allows us to have a decently strong damage output. Angraths ability is quite strong in this deck; having an extra attacker/blocker is something our deck is always interested in, but we have quite a bit of support for our armies allowing us to build up a huge attacker and a great finisher when paired with cards like Cosmotronic Wave
Angrath is a huge part of our deck and a card I always like to have on the field.
Deck Matchups:
Since this is Pauper EDH, there are an absolute ton of things that can tip a game in your favor or out of it. While an archetype may seem favorable, there are absolutely good and bad commanders for our deck to go up against; I have included both these, which were all played among my testing groups using various decks, and I have included the sample size for clarity purposes. This is just meant to be a guide after testing a bunch of games with this deck!
The information below is notes about specific decks that were featured in our testing pods and how we fared against them. Naturally, Pauper EDH is a multiplayer game, so these are just a summary of my notes against different commanders and strategies. When we test these decks we try to test to its strengths and weaknesses to give a full spectrum of what the deck has to offer. Various commanders and archetypes/strategies are used to get the most accurate information.
Commanders, we have a good matchup against:
Satyr Enchanter
Record against Satyr Enchanter 4-0
Satyr Enchanter is a very strong commander that can get out of hand quite quickly, but our saving grace against them is that they very often only have their commander on the field allowing us to hit them often and decently hard, once we get our commander out its just a few turns till we take over, being able to be quick is one of the key aspects of winning this game. I find this matchup to be quite favorable.
Gnarlback Rhino
Record against Gnarlback Rhino 5-2
I like this matchup, they occasionally will have draws that are quite hard for us to beat, but most of these lists only run five-seven creatures so with our large amount of removal we can easily take advantage of this, this matchup is not an auto-win that’s for sure but is overall a pretty favorable matchup, I typically like to keep some removal in my opening hand.
Earthshaker
Record against Earthshaker 3-0
Earthshaker is such a cool deck, but I think this matchup is quite favorable for us; we do need to remove it as soon as it hits the field, but it costs six, and with a good early hand, we can easily put a ton of pressure, on our opponents and disrupt their entire gameplan. This deck is wacky and weird, but it is a favorable matchup for us.
Commanders, we have a tough matchup against:
Ajani's Pridemate
Record against Ajani’s Pridemate 2-3
This is a pretty tough matchup for us. They gain a ton of life, which makes it quite hard for us to keep their life total down, and many of our small creatures just don’t do much. Combine that with a ton of creatures and a commander that gets huge, and this is not a favorable matchup. This matchup is winnable because we do have considerably more removal than they do, but overall, this is not a walk in the park.
Heartfire Hero
Record against Heartfire Hero 0-5
This is just a rough matchup for us in every way; while we can remove their commander quite often, with the prevalence of instants and buffs, it can be very tough to kill it without taking a ton of damage. This deck is also hyper-aggressive but with huge and cheap buffs like Antagonize
and finishers like Temur Battle Rage
and Uncaged Fury
this can be very tough. I do not like this matchup and did not have a ton of success when testing against it.
Battery Bearer
Record against Battery Bearer 0-3
Battery Bearer is a very tough matchup, nigh unwinnable at least throughout my testing, while we can chip in quite well in the early game it is very tough to maintain any board presence once they get their huge creatures out, we need a great early-game, and a lot of removal to even have a chance in this one, I would argue we would need to join forces with our opponents to get a win.
Strategy Overview:
Swing Early, Swing Often:
We are an aggressive deck at heart, keeping an aggressive hand and swinging with our creatures as early and often as possible, Angrath allows us to be pretty strong in most combat situations and make decks that have a low creature count have a very rough matchup against us. One of the best ways to win the game is to swing early and often and keep on chipping in, even for low amounts of damage.
Take advantage of strong combat situations:
Since we have menace a good majority of times when we are in combat, we can take full advantage of an opponent who has swung out or just has a small board presence; being able to take advantage of these situations is key to winning the game when opponents have more built up boards as we transition to the late-game.
Strengthen our army:
We have quite a bit of army support within our deck, not only through our commander but through aggressive creatures like Grim Initiate
and Lazotep Reaver
, which are both great early-game creatures and a great way to build up the army we get from our commander, it doesn’t really matter the order that we go about making or pumping our armys but we can get them pretty big and they can be very strong attackers/blockers, and with some of our effects that prevent opponents from blocking we can deal some huge, and often lethal damage.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
We have a ton of small aggressive creatures to start off the game, like Grim Initiate, which also has the added benefit of buffing our army! I’m also a big fan of Reckless Lackey
, which is a very strong attacker. Their sacrifice ability can take out even a midgame creature. Lackey’s first strike also allows them to be on the field for quite a long time. For a large majority of the game we have menace on our creatures which is very good for dealing combat damage and can make cards like Bloodcrazed Neonate
, Erdwal Ripper
and Heirs of Stromkirk
the buffs that these can get in the early-game allow us to put quite a bit of pressure on our opponents and can get out of hand quite quickly. Since we have so many small attackers we have a couple ninjutsu cards which we can get a ton of value out of; attacking someone for one with a small creature and usually menace will make it so your opponents never block, and being able to ninjutsu in Ninja of the New Moon
and Okiba-Gang Shinobi
which can deal a lot of damage and really change the state of the game. We often don’t get there, but we do have some late-game creatures with cards like [scyrlink]Troll of Khazad Dum[/scrylink] and Oliphaunt
, which both have the added benefit of being mana-fixing which can really help on some low-mana hands.
Instants:
Our instant package is not that interesting for the most part. It’s almost all removal, which is super important for the format; it is very creature-focused, and having removal can save us multiple times throughout a game. I typically like an opening hand with at least one removal spell; we have quite a bit of cheap removal like Go for the Throat
and Doom Blade
, so having it our opening hand can help us deal with some early threats. Last but certainly not least, we have Unexpected Windfall
and Big Score
, which are sources of mana ramp and card draw; while these arent great in the early-game, they can be a great way to refill our hands when they start getting low in the late-game.
Sorceries:
Coronation of Chaos
and Cosmotronic Wave are two of the most important spells in the deck; they allow us to finish off games and put a ton of pressure on our opponents; these are both best used when we have a ton of creatures on the board, which happens quite quickly. One of the best ways to fill up our board is with other sorceries like Dragon Fodder
and Krenko's Command
, which can be great ways to fill up the board early and guarantee some serious early-game damage. Mage Hunters' Onslaught
is a little pricey but slowly becoming one of the better cards in the format, at least for the month of January or some rule zero games! Planeswalker removal is not very common, and with the new legalization, I believe that mage hunters are going to be floating around a lot more; while we don’t get a ton of benefit off of the second ability, it can still be decently relevant. Mordor Muster
and Honor the God-Pharaoh
are both cheap and strong sources of card draw that allow us to buff up our armies which is awesome for the deck, with our commander, and these cards as well as some of our creatures we can easily have a massive attacker/blocker which is especially important as we transition to the late-game!
Artifacts:
Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher
is a great option against Voltron-style decks or pretty much any deck that focuses on and has a low creature count; when we do flip it, having the drain and gain can be quite strong. I’m also a big fan of Beamtown Beatstick
, which is a very strong and cheap buff and a great way to get some extra mana ramp. We have some additional mana ramp through Rakdos Signet and Rakdos Locket
, which are both great ways to get ahead in the early-game and get some card draw as needed. While a lot of our artifacts aren’t that flashy, they get the job done and fill the support role very nicely.
Enchantments:
We have a ton of creatures and a decent amount of token producers, so Impact Tremors
is a cheap and amazing way to deal some additional damage; this card definitely puts a target on your head as it is quite infamous and if your opponents have any enchantment removal it will likely come your way, my attitude towards this card is we keep as long as we can and try to trigger it as much as we can. Oubliette
is one of my favorite removal spells in the format and is a cheap and easy way to get rid of problematic commanders, combo piece creatures, or really anything that is problematic for us. Sticky Fingers
is a little redundant since it gives menace, but for only one mana, being able to get some treasure tokens early can help us ramp out our creatures and get a leg up on our opponents.
Land Base:
We have a very simple landbase, but I find it works well with the deck, we don’t have a ton of interesting non-basics, but I am a big fan of both Hidden Necropolis
and Hidden Volcano
which can be a great way to recover after a rough combat or get ahead on a turn where we have extra mana. Other than that, we just have some basic dual lands and a bunch of basics. I am a big fan of this landbase and find it works well for the deck.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We are quite aggressive and can get some strong early-game damage.
- We are very strong in combat since we almost often have menace on all of our creatures.
- Our armies are easy to buff up and huge allowing us to compete more within the late-game.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- They are pretty weak to creature removal, especially stuff en masse like Arms of Hadar
. - Without our commander, we can be pretty weak in combat, especially with some of our smaller creatures.
- We rely on our removal and, without it, can get outmuscled in combat.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Conclusion:
Angrath is a very awesome commander and allows us to be quite dominant in combat, Rakdos is also a perfect color combination for it! I hope you all enjoyed our first look into the newly legal Planeswalkers; they add an awesome element, and even past the month of January, my playgroup and I are absolutely going to be rule-zeroing these decks. I hope you all enjoyed Angrath as much as I did! I hope you all enjoyed it, and thank you for reading to the end.